A glass of pure spring water is typically maintained on an altar, to call in spirits and feed the ancestors. Many find Spirit Water a stronger substitute. This is a favorite of the Spiritualist, community and may be used to summon your own ancestral spirits, or in seances or other necromantic spells.

1. Add one tablespoon of anisette to a glass of spring water.

2. Place it on the altar instead of, or in addition to, the standard glass of plain spring water.

This formula is attributed to Marie Laveau, the renowned Queen of New Orleans Voodoo. Born in 1792. Marie Laveau transformed Voodoo from a surreptitious and persecuted cult into an organized, respected (or feared) established tradition. Following her death, she has achieve unofficial saint status and continues to perform miracles from her grave at New Orleans’ St. Louis Cemetery Number One.

This formula is sometimes marketed as Holy Water or as Blessing Water. It may substitute in any spell that calls for either one:

Basque witches also created flying ointments although, perhaps because Mari, Basque Queen of Witches, flies on a fire bolt, the associations of flying on broomsticks are lacking. Instead of brooms, incantations are needed: rub the ointment on the body while repeatedly chanting something like: “Above all the thorns, through all the clouds….”

This potion is far more innocuous than the average witch’s flying ointments. Basil tea or juice was once considered sufficient to enable a witch’s flight. (This is not a spell for pregnant women or those actively attempting to conceive, although neither are the rest of the witch’s ointments…)

1. Rub autumn gentian into the armpits and backs of knees to be enabled to fly.

2. The most potent autumn gentian is picked on Saint John’s Eve at Bald Mountain.

Don’t run out and get autumn gentian. That may not be the exact plant used. Russian magick placed greater emphasis on the process of gathering herbs (“during the seventh minute of the fourteenth hour, under a dark moon, in the thirteenth field, wearing a red dress, pick the twelfth flower on the right”) than on precise identification of the herb itself. This isn’t meant to be completely sarcastic. Different traditions place emphasis on different aspects of magick.

Protective witches’ bottles, some dating from before Roman times and other from as late as the beginning of the twentieth century, may be seen in museums around the world. There are fine examples in the small and eccentric but fabulous Pux Rivers Museum in Oxford, UK. Witch bottles usually consisted of a sealed stone or bellaramine jar, filled with bent iron nails and pins, and buried under the entrance of a house. Iron is considered the most protective metal against all kinds of harm. Although the old witch bottles were often designed to guard against witches, the modern ones are used to repel any form of malevolence or bad feeling that may enter the home.

You will need:

A dark glass or stone bottle with a cork or tight lid (the kind used for cider is ideal); some sealing was (optional); enough old rusty nails and pins to half fill the bottle; enough cheap or sour red wine or vinegar to almost fill the bottle; 2 or 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary of 2-3 tsp dried rosemary.

Timing:

At around 10 p.m., when the moon is no longer visible in the sky.

The Spell:

Working in a dim light; rinse the bottle under a tap.

Place the rusty nails and pins in the bottle, bending them if you can to form a horseshoe shape.

Add the rosemary and then enough wine to cover the nails (the original protective fluid was urine, but this is not suitable for modern witch bottles!)

Close the bottle and, if you choose, seal it with sealing wax (the traditional method).

Shake the bottle nine times, as you do so saying:

Keep away harm,

Keep away danger,

Keep from my door

False friend and stranger.

Drive away malice,

Drive away spite,

Guard this my dwelling

By day and by night.

Either bury the bottle in deep earth near the front or back door or keep it on a high shelf in a basement or cellar. Alternatively, place it high as possible in the house, when it cannot be seen.